Judith Kerr, who celebrates her 90th birthday next week, has had several remarkableand treasured lives, and we are the beneficiaries of a number of them. She began life in Berlin, the daughter of one of Germany's most celebrated intellectuals, the drama critic, journalist and screenwriter Alfred Kerr. As the Nazis became more influential, Alfred's life was in danger because he was one of their most vocal critics and also Jewish.

Judith and her brother were shielded until the Nazis took power, at which point they fled to Paris with their mother.For a while the family enjoyed life there – Judith learned French, and loved it – until they had to flee again, this time to England, where Alfred joined them. Judith's book When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit deals with this part of her life.

With help from friends, she had a private education, and pretty soon, she realised that her first interest was drawing and painting. This was a time when life wasn't easy for the family as a whole. Alfred was unable to find work or learn English to a level that enabled him to write in the language, and Judith's mother had to find work back in Germany translating for the American army. Troublingly for Judith, her German wasn't really up to conversing with her father, and Alfred had not fully mastered English.

Later she met and married the screenwriter Nigel Kneale, author of the groundbreaking Quatermass series, among other programmes and films, and they had two children. As their two children were growing up, they were joined by a remarkable cat, Mog, who starred in a series of intimate, funny and at times exciting picture books, drawn and written by Judith with, she joyfully admits, help from her children.

One such book, born out of family life, was The Tiger Who Came to Tea' was also born out of family life. This surreal storynever resolves who the tiger is, and it remains a perfect question for anyone aged from one to 101 to ponder.

•Judith Kerr's Creatures is published this week by HarperCollins Children's Books

• This article was amended on 12 June 2013 to correct the spelling of Judith Kerr's husband's name from Nigel Neale, to Nigel Kneale.